Chains Released

6

Jake watched Ennie walk into the alcove as he went back to his pallet, glad the girl no longer showed that deadly depression she’d been in before the slaver’s attack. He hated that he had to go against his own best judgment simply because Tain didn’t agree with him, but he had no choice at all about obeying her order. He parted his lips to say what he’d been told he had to, but Tain interrupted before he could get the first word out.

“Killen, save that explanation until after Ennie is done with what she has in mind,” Tain said, and damned if the woman didn’t look amused. Jake closed his mouth again and nodded to acknowledge this newest order, but the annoyance he felt disappeared when he finally noticed what Ennie carried. Unless he was mistaken, that was Tandro’s knife belt she had…

“Tandro, that body cloth isn’t appropriate right this moment,” Ennie said as she walked toward the native where he’d backed up to his own pallet, her gaze directly on the man. “You can start by taking the cloth off.”

Tandro’s expression of calm control didn’t really change as he reached to his covering, but Jake could see the sudden worry in the man’s dark eyes. Not to mention the sudden desperation. It had been bad enough when another man was in charge of them; having a girl being in charge instead was ten times worse.

“Good boy,” Ennie purred with an odd smile as soon as Tandro had put his body cloth to one side of the pallet. She also sat down on the pallet, which put a wary look on Tandro’s face. “Now I’d like you to arrange yourself face down over my lap, taking the same position you put me in so often.”

Tandro didn’t actually pale as he moved as he’d been told to, but Jake saw that the wariness in the man’s eyes had given way to total desperation. Tandro was probably remembering the same thing Jake was: that time in the hostel when Tandro spanked Ennie in front of Jake and Tain both. It was fairly obvious that the girl meant to return the compliment, but much more thoroughly than Jake had expected.

A gasp was forced out of Tandro’s throat when Ennie reached to the man’s backside with both hands. The girl had put the belt down for the purpose, and now that the belt was out of the way Jake could see that Ennie had carried something besides the leather in her hand. Jake got a glimpse of the insertion just before Ennie put the thing in Tandro, and then she was picking up the belt again.

“You’re a good boy now, but you haven’t always been a good boy, have you?”

Ennie asked as she stroked Tandro’s hair slowly and gently. “I’d say that this is going to hurt me more than it does you, but I think we both know that that would be a lie. You’ve earned punishing, boy, and it’s become my place to see that you get it.” Jake thought Tandro was about to say something, but the first stroke of the leather belt on his backside turned the words into a garbled sound.

The stroke couldn’t have hurt all that much, not when Ennie was far from being well-muscled, but the touch hadn’t been a gentle gesture either. And it was probable that Tandro had automatically tightened his muscles in anticipation of the stroke, an action that would have brought the insertion into play.

“When you did this to me you ordered me to say something that you wanted to hear,” Ennie murmured as her arm brought the leather down on Tandro’s rear a second time. “I, on the other hand, don’t want to hear any kind of words from you. All you have to do is take your licking like a man.”

Tandro groaned as he began to writhe a little, giving Jake the impression that the man wasn’t quite as over the switching from yesterday as they’d both thought they were. Not to mention the fact that Jake had gotten bodily relief the night before but Tandro hadn’t. The insertion was obviously bringing back the arousal Tandro hadn’t had satisfied, but there was nothing either of them could do to stop what was happening. They’d been given orders they weren’t allowed to refuse…

Jake watched his friend get half a dozen strokes of that leather belt before it came to him that this time he hadn’t been ordered to watch the punishment. Jake’s embarrassment on Tandro’s behalf was intense, so he quickly turned away—only to see that the audience was larger than just himself and Tain. All the women who had passed by earlier were now standing in the open doorway, and most of them wore expressions of such grim satisfaction that their presence was more disturbing than embarrassing.

The spanking went on for what was actually only a short time, but every time Jake heard another stroke of the belt land he had to keep himself from flinching. The women in the doorway watched avidly but silently, and Jake could only hope that Tandro didn’t know they were there. Tain stood at the back of the small crowd, her face expressionless as she made no effort to stop what was going on, and that was what got to Jake the most. Tain knew exactly what Tandro was being put through, just the way all the women did, but even she wasn’t prepared to stop the punishment. So much for compassion on behalf of the helpless…

“All right, boy, you can straighten up to kneel on your pallet until I’m out of the way,” Ennie finally said, showing that the spanking was over. “You seem to need something rather badly, but I’m afraid your need is going to be with you for a while. I may get around to doing something about it later, or I may not. We’ll just have to wait and see what my mood is like.”

Jake heard sounds of movement, and then he realized that Ennie was now standing next to his own pallet. He’d been busy studying his hands, and when he looked up he not only saw Ennie but that the other women were no longer in the doorway.

“I think you have something to tell me, Killen,” Ennie said, using his name for what was probably the first time. “Let’s hear it.” “I … didn’t know how you would take the news, Ennie, and that’s why I kept it from you,” Jake said, hating himself for making excuses. “The truth is, Tain and I work for the same people, and Tandro and I meant to take you two back home as soon as we saw to our assignment. If you’d had more experience in the field I would have been able to trust you with knowing everything, but you had no experience and also almost nothing in the way of training. I couldn’t take the chance that you would screw everything up if you knew what was really going on.”

Adding that last made Jake feel a bit better, but the words still made his insides turn over. He’d been told that he didn’t have to obey Ennie, but the possibility existed that Ennie would talk Tain into changing that freedom to something he would sincerely regret. He didn’t quite hold his breath while Ennie simply stared at him with no expression on her face, and then she nodded.

“I’d love to say your opinion of me was wrong, but lying doesn’t solve anything,” the girl said, not very happy with him but far from the rage he’d half expected. “I’ll have to think about what you just told me for a while before I can really react to the news, but I can give you a hint about the way I’ll feel. I think it’s highly unlikely that you and I will ever be friends.”

And with that the girl turned and left the alcove, going left toward where the other women had probably gone. Jake had expected to feel a lot of relief once he and Tandro were no longer the objects of such close attention, but suddenly he heard the almost-silent moaning Tandro was doing behind Jake. There wasn’t a single doubt in Jake’s mind that the moaning came from Tandro’s urgent need for Ennie’s return, a return that hadn’t quite been promised to the man.

Jake lay down on his own pallet without turning to look at Tandro, trying to give his friend as much privacy as the cramped quarters allowed. He also suddenly found himself in a brooding mood, and there was no time like the present to indulge.

Tain had followed the other women back to the cooking alcove, and by the time Ennie showed up Tain had gotten a fresh cup of coffee. Ennie returned the belt from where she’d gotten it, poured a cup of coffee of her own, then came to sit down near Tain.

“Why are some of the women looking like they just inherited a fortune while a couple of the others look like they were written out of the will?” Ennie asked softly with her back to the others once she was seated. “Char, especially, looks like she’s floating on air, but Risdin seems to want to cry.”

“Seeing a man being treated the way you treated Tandro has apparently made Char’s day,” Tain answered just as softly. “The utter delight she got chased away enough of her fear to let her relax a little, so it looks like I’ll be able to let her stay. Risdin, on the other hand, isn’t happy with what you did, because she said the men were hurt by the slaver for being against slavery. Taking advantage of their helplessness strikes Risdin as being wrong, but possibly that’s because she wasn’t Tandro’s slave before he became a slave himself.”

“What do you mean, they were hurt by the slaver?” Ennie asked, the look in her eyes suddenly sharpening. “No one told me anything had been done to them, and I assumed they were just locked up until you broke them loose. How were they hurt?”

“The slaver did to both of them what you did to Tandro, but his men weren’t quite as gentle as you were,” Tain said, now watching the girl’s reactions carefully. “By the time I got them out they were having a lot of trouble walking, and not just from the switchings they were given. But I

have to tell you… One of the first things Tandro said when he was allowed to speak again was to ask if you were all right. He kept saying during the trip that he didn’t want to be blamed by our people if anything really horrible happened to you, so maybe that’s why he asked.“

“After going through all that himself he took the trouble to ask about me?” Ennie said, staring into space instead of meeting Tain’s gaze.

“After talking to the women I went with, it suddenly came to me that they were in a worse position than I ever was. I might not have had anyone who really cared about me, but I still wasn’t enslaved and beaten and raped and hurt all the way down to my soul. I felt like an ungrateful idiot for complaining about my life when theirs were so much worse, and now you tell me that Tandro asked about me? But what I did to him…”

Ennie put her coffee cup down before closing her eyes for a moment, then she scrambled to her feet and hurried out of the alcove. Since the girl turned right, Tain didn’t have to wonder where Ennie was going. The only thing left to wonder about was whether Tandro would be able to forgive

Ennie for doing to him what he’d done to her. If he couldn’t, then Ennie would be much better off without him.

After a while Risdin made lunch for everyone with Areen helping her, and

Tain ate slowly to fill in as much of the waiting time as possible. After lunch she spoke to the women and told them most of her plan, and then they wasted a bit more time discussing what they’d heard. Most of the women liked Tain’s idea, but they were also more than a little afraid. The fear didn’t cause them to refuse to help out, though; it just made them wish they could refuse.

Once the meeting was over, Tain took a walk to see how Ennie, Tandro, and

Killen were doing. Peeking inside the men’s alcove showed Ennie and Tandro asleep in each other’s arms on Tandro’s pallet, and even Killen had managed to fall asleep. Getting some rest seemed like a really good idea, so Tain went to her own pallet and forced herself to sleep. The automatic alarm clock in her head would help to wake her up, she knew, and if the trick somehow missed then it would be Risdin who woke her. Before leaving the cooking alcove Tain had spoken to Risdin, who now knew that Tain wanted to leave right after she and the men had something to eat.

Sleeping in the middle of the day did manage to throw off Tain’s inner clock. She opened her eyes to Risdin’s hand on her shoulder, then had to get back into the costume before following the other woman to the cooking alcove. And the mood Tain woke with wasn’t even as good as the one she’d gone to sleep with; she’d been dreaming about taking a long, delicious bath, and waking up to reality hadn’t been pleasant.

Risdin had made a plain vegetable stew for everyone, and after the food had been put into bowls with wooden spoons added she helped Tain carry the four bowls to the men’s alcove. Areen and the woman whose name Tain didn’t know followed with two cups of coffee each, and once all the food and drink had been distributed the three native women left the alcove. Since Killen, Tandro, and Ennie were awake and sitting up on their respective pallets, Areen and the other coffee carrier left a good deal faster than Risdin.

“We’ll be leaving here as soon as we finish eating, so if you have any questions on what I’m about to tell you don’t hold back,” Tain said to the two men after sitting down on the stone floor. “Ennie already knows she won’t be going with us, so the outing will just be a threesome.”

“Where will we be going?” Killen asked at once while Tandro looked deeply relieved. “Since Ennie will be staying behind, it’s fairly obvious we aren’t going to be heading home.”

“Tonight we’ll be going out to do some kidnapping,” Tain said, noticing that Killen wasn’t diving into the food any faster than she herself.

“We’re going to start with Gordi, and once we have him we’ll move on to the names he gives us. I intend to get Gordi himself, the two next most powerful leaders who support him, and his most powerful … opponent tonight. Once we have them we’ll get them to understand just how bad slavery is, and once that’s done we’ll then head home.”

“You expect us to convince Gordi and the others just like that in one night?” Killen said, the words not quite mocking. “I consider myself a fairly good talker, Tain, but unless you’re better than fairly good you might want to try another plan.”

“I said we’ll be getting the men tonight, not that we’ll convince them that quickly,” Tain corrected mildly. “It will probably take the entire following day or even a bit longer before they really get the message, but this is important work. Heading home will have to wait until the work is done, so I need to ask: are you two in good enough shape to help, or will it be smarter to leave you behind along with Ennie?”

Tain had actually addressed her question to Tandro, and the native smiled in that calm way he had.

“I’m perfectly fine, so staying behind won’t be necessary,” Tandro stated, speaking just as mildly as Tain had. “Killen, I think, is doing even better than I am.”

“Yeah, I’m definitely doing better than fine,” Killen agreed, but not with anything like enthusiasm. “And is that all we’ll be doing tonight?

Kidnapping men and then sitting down to talk to them?“

“Actually, the talking won’t take place until those women in the next alcove show the men just what it’s like to be a slave,” Tain answered, ignoring the urge to tell Killen that the rest of the plan was none of his business. “We happen to have some doses of the slave drug at our disposal, which make my plan more than just wishful thinking. Risdin found a package with a dozen doses that some slaver lost, and I mean to double up on each of the men.”

“To compensate for their greater size and body weight,” Killen said with a startled nod, his distant stare saying he was thinking about what he’d been told. “That’s probably what was done with us… And you believe that Gordi and the others will be convinced by being enslaved themselves? What if they react the other way after being treated badly by women and decide to hold their slaves even tighter than before?”

“I’ll know if that happens because I mean to ask before letting the men go again,” Tain said, making no effort to avoid Killen’s gaze. “If any of those men react like fools instead of rational beings, I’m going to cut their throats instead of turning them loose. I won’t give people like

Himlin any more supporters than they already have.“

Killen’s expression didn’t change, but the look in his eyes almost made

Tain want to flinch. Mention of the slaver Himlin had made Killen show a hint of how he felt about that slaver, a reaction that had nothing in the way of fear about it. Dismemberment and bloody murder, yes; fear, no.

“Now we’d better get this food eaten so we can get on with our chore,”

Tain said, breaking what had become an awkward silence. “I want us to be finished and back here with everyone before daylight.”

They’d all just been sitting and holding their bowls, but Tain’s reminder set the other three to beginning the meal. Tain didn’t really want the vegetable stew, she wanted a decent meal, but getting a meal like that wasn’t going to happen until she was back where she belonged. In the meanwhile there was work to do, and since skipping the meal wasn’t a good idea she picked up her own spoon and began to eat.

Once everyone had finished the last drop of coffee in their cups, Tain, Killen, and Tandro got on with their chore. A candle let them find their way up the stairs and into the room with the secret entrance to the tunnel, then out of the warehouse. Tandro carried the pack holding the doses of the drug, leaving her and Killen’s hands free for any fighting that might have to be done.

It turned out that there was rough stuff, but no actual fighting. Tandro guided them through the empty streets to Gordi’s house, deep night and silence all around them as they moved silently. Four men who could be considered perimeter guards stood a small distance from the house, and Tain made two of them unconscious while Killen did the same for the other two. Once the guards were out of the way, getting into the house wasn’t hard at all.

The man Gordi lay asleep in his bed beside a woman who didn’t wear anything to mark her as a slave, so Tain knew that the woman could well be Gordi’s wife. The man himself looked large and well-muscled even in the dark, which meant that Killen rendered the woman unconscious and then he, Tain, and Tandro all sat on Gordi while Tain forced the drug down Gordi’s throat. Gordi struggled hard before the first of the drug trickled into him, and then his struggles turned very lethargic.

By the time the second dose was down the man’s throat, all the fight had gone out of him. It wasn’t easy to tell in the dark, but Gordi looked dazed and mostly out of it.

“Gordi, can you hear me?” Tain asked softly, needing to know if they’d have to wait until they could all get out of there. “If you can, say so.”

“I can hear you,” Gordi obliged, but the dazed quality was clear in his voice.

“Good,” Tain said, feeling more than a little relieved. “Get out of bed and get dressed.”

Gordi obeyed without hesitation, but his movements were very deliberate and definitely on the slow side. Tain realized that the man wasn’t resisting, he was simply reacting to the drug he’d been given. He obviously needed some time to adjust, but Tain didn’t have the time to give him.

Once they had the man out of his house, Tain moved very close to him.

“You’re going to close your eyes now, but that isn’t all I want you to do,” she murmured. “Until you’re told otherwise, you’re going to see nothing, hear nothing but my voice, and smell nothing. You’ll have absolutely no idea of where you’re being taken, and that will continue to hold true even if someone orders you to remember whatever you can. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I understand,” Gordi answered in the same kind of murmur, his eyes already closed. “There’s nothing around me but unrelieved darkness.”

“Too bad he didn’t realize that sooner,” Killen muttered, and Tain knew he wasn’t talking about the state Tain had put the man into. “Let’s get out of here before one or more of those guards wakes up.”

Since Tain had been about to say the same thing she didn’t argue, and they all moved off into the cool dark. She’d noticed that Killen hadn’t been very friendly lately, not even to the point of neutrality. It looked like her plan to discourage him had worked, helped along by her plan to change the minds of the town and area leaders. Killen knew as well as she did that the job had to be done, but he obviously hated using the drug to accomplish the task. Tain could understand how he felt, but since there was no choice if the talks were to be effective rather than a waste of time and breath…

Getting back to the warehouse took only a little longer than leaving it had. Tain and Killen searched the darkness carefully for anyone who might be around—like some of Himlin’s men, for instance—but the area was completely deserted. Once inside the warehouse they relit their candle, then Tain began to question Gordi. She got the names she needed along with locations of the men’s houses, and shortly thereafter they were in the room with the secret panel. Tain used the release to open the cabinet-door, and once it opened she got a surprise.

“I’ve been waiting for you guys to get back,” Ennie said from where she stood just past the secret door. “It came to me that you three have a lot to do, and it will save time if you don’t have to go all the way down and then back up again. But if you don’t agree—”

“As a matter of fact I do agree,” Tain assured the anxious girl, giving her a real smile. “Your idea is more than good, and I appreciate the help. I’m going to turn this man over to you, and then you can take him the rest of the way. Once you have him you-know-where, don’t let the others start on the rest of the plan. I want to be there to make sure they don’t go overboard.”

“That’s an even better idea,” Ennie said, her own smile on the rueful side. “Those women have been hurt so badly that going overboard is probably a guarantee rather than a possibility. But I’ll make sure they stay away from him.”

“Let them know that the delay is only temporary,” Tain advised.

“That way you shouldn’t have too much trouble.” Then she turned her attention to their captive. “Gordi, from here there will be someone else leading you. When she tells you to lie down you’ll do it, and then you’ll go right to sleep. You won’t wake again until you hear my voice, and when you do wake up you’ll be able to see and hear and smell things again. You just won’t be able to refuse orders, defend yourself, or try to escape. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, I understand,” Gordi answered, his eyes still closed tight. He seemed a little less dazed now so Tain let Ennie lead the man to the stairs, and once they began to descend without the man falling, Tain closed the cabinet-door again.

“Okay, who do we go for first?” Tain asked Tandro, who had watched Ennie until the door cut off sight of her. “I want to take the most distant victim first and work our way back in this direction, and we can’t waste the time to bring each of them here before going for the next. As soon as the alarm is raised we’ll have half the town searching for us.”

“I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re right,” Tandro said, his face showing a frown. “All three of our targets live fairly close to one another, but not in the same area that Gordi does. If we move fast we can have all three down in the tunnel before anyone gives the alarm.”

“Let’s hope it works out like that,” Tain said, shielding the candle’s flame with one hand as they moved as quickly as possible to the warehouse exit. “And here’s hoping none of the three have as many guards as Gordi did. Taking them down isn’t hard, but it does waste a lot of time.”

Tain saw an odd look on Tandro’s face before she blew out the candle, but there wasn’t time to wonder what the expression meant. Instead she just let the native lead the way to the house of their next victim, a man named

Flam who didn’t seem to believe in guards. His house was large but easy to get into, and there were three female slaves sleeping on pallets in what seemed to be a closet in his bedroom. Flam himself was alone in his bed, so after closing the closet door Tain and her companions fed the man the drug. He reacted in the same way that Gordi had, and Tain put him under immediate control. They now had Gordi’s main opponent, and had only

Gordi’s supporters still to get.

They finally made it back to the warehouse with all three men, and as far as Tain could tell no one had sounded an alarm yet. Their luck was running better than she’d dared to hope it would, but that might not be the blessing it seemed. They had all four of the men they wanted in their control, but how those men would react to what was done to them remained to be seen.

Ennie wasn’t waiting this time when Tain opened the secret door, which probably meant she hadn’t felt it wise to leave Gordi by himself even asleep. She left Killen and Tandro to see to their prisoners after she closed the secret door again, then went ahead to find out if her guess had been right.

“You’re back,” Ennie exclaimed with a smile when Tain walked into the fourth alcove, the room they’d gotten ready for their prisoners. Ennie sat on the floor next to a sleeping Gordi, but now she got to her feet. “I

thought about leaving this man alone when I found that the other women were asleep, but considering the fact that he’s the important one I

decided it might be better if I stayed. Did you get all the others?“

“We certainly did,” Tain said, relieved that her worry had been misplaced. “Killen and Tandro are bringing them down so they ought to be here in a minute or two.”

“After that I think we all ought to get some sleep,” Ennie said, running a weary hand through her hair. “I know I had that nap earlier, but all the good it did has been slowly wearing off.”

Tain nodded her agreement, then turned to wait for the men to be brought to the alcove. If she cued the others to her voice the way she had with Gordi, none of the men would wake up until she wanted them to. But that didn’t mean she’d be able to sleep anywhere but right there in the alcove with the prisoners. If the native women hadn’t made any trouble yet, that didn’t mean tomorrow wouldn’t be another story entirely…